Weft supplying device for a warp knitting machine

ABSTRACT

WARP KNITTING MACHINE HAVING A ZONE WHEREIN NEEDLESARE DISPOSED AND MEANS FOR SUPPLYING WARP THREADS TO THE NEEDLES INCLUDING A DEVICE FOR FILLING A WEFT HAVING FIRST HOLDER MEMBERS FOR MAKING THE WEFT READY OUTSIDE THE NEEDLE ZONE, MEANS FOR GUIDING THE WEFT TO THE WARP THREADS, THE FIRST HOLDER MEMBERS HAVING A THREAD GUIDE COOPERATING THEREWITH, FOR MAKING THE WEFT READY, THE THREAD GUIDE BEING DISPLACEABLE IN A CLOSED TRAVEL PATH, MEANS FOR FEEDING A PLURALITY OF WEFTS SELECTIVELY TO THE THREAD GUIDE FOR ENTRAINMENT THEREBY IN THE CLOSED TRAVEL PATH THEREOF, A SERVERING MEMBER LOCATED ADJACENT AND COORDINATED WITH THE FIRST HOLDER MEMBERS FOR CUTTING INTO PREDETERMINED LENGTHS THE WEFT TO BE MADE READY, THE THREAD GUIDE HAVING A CLAMPING MEMBER FOR INDIVIDUALLY GRIPPING THE THREAD FOR EACH WEFT, AND SECOND HOLDER MEANS LOCATED ADJACENT THE TRAVEL PATH OF THE THREAD GUIDE AND ADAPTED TO RECEIVE FROM THE LATTER THE WEFT GRIPPED BY THE CLAMPING MEMBER.

Nov. 16, 1971 s, u s-r 3,620,048

WEFT SUPPLYING DEVICE FOR A WARP KNITTING MACHINE Filed Sept. 26. 1969 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Nov. 16, 1971 s. FURST 3,620 048 I WEFT SUPPLYING DEVICE FOR A WARP KNITTING MACHINE Filed Sept. 26, 1968 s Sheets-sheet a IN VE NT 0R Nov. 16, 1971 s. FURST 3,620,048

WEFT SUPPLYING DEVICE FOR A WARP KNITTING MACHINE Filed Sept. 26, 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 7..@@ @p"@@@@@% @@@Q \l/ INVE/W'OR United States Patent 01 fee 3,620,048 WEFT SUPPLYING DEVICE FOR A WARP KNITTING MACHINE Stefan Furst, Monchen-Gladbach, Germany, asslgnor to Walter Reiners, Monchen-Gladbach, Germany Filed Sept. 26, 1969, Ser. No. 861,250 Claims priority, application Germany, Sept. 27, 1968,

P 17 85 482.9 Int. Cl. D04b 23/12 US. Cl. 66-84 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Warp knitting machine having a zone wherein needles are disposed and means for supplying warp threads to the needles including a device for filling a weft having first holder members for making the weft ready outside the needle zone, means for guiding the weft to the warp threads, the first holder members having a thread guide cooperating therewith, for making the weft ready, the thread guide being displaceable in a closed travel path, means for feeding a plurality of wefts selectively to the thread guide for entrainment thereby in the closed travel path thereof, a severing member located adjacent and coordinated with the first holder members for cutting into predetermined lengths the weft to be made ready, the thread guide having a clamping member for individually gripping the thread for each weft, and second holde'r means located adjacent the travel path of the thread guide and adapted to receive from the latter the weft gripped by the clamping member.

My invention relates to warp knitting machines and especially to raschel knitting machines.

In my copending application Ser. No. 854,974, filed Sept. 3, 1969, I disclose a warp knitting machine, especially a raschel knitting machine, having .a zone wherein needles are disposed and means for supplying warp threads to the needles comprising a device for filling a weft having holder members for making the weft ready outside the needle zone, means for guiding the weft to the warp threads, the holder members having a thread guide cooperating therewith for making the weft ready, the thread guide being displaceable in a closed travel path, and means for feeding a plurality of wefts selectively to the thread guide for entrainment thereby in the closed travel path thereof.

In the embodiment of my aforementioned copending application, each weft is fed over at least two holder members to the thread guide and from the latter in the form of a loop to a third holder member located opposite the thread guide. However, this type of weft feed has a disadvantage in that only .a double weft can thus be made ready, whereas it is soften desirable for each weft thread to be distinguished from the preceding weft thread.

. It is accordingly an object of my invention to provide warp knitting machine with weft feeding means wherein each weft thread being fed is distinguishable from the preceding weft thread.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, I provide in accordance with my invention, a warp knitting machine with at least one severing member coordinated with the weft holder means for cutting into predetermined lengths the weft to be made ready, the thread guide having a clamping member for individually gripping the thread for each weft, and further holder means located In a warp knitting machine of such constructiomthein dividualthreads made ready or applied to the thread 3,620,048 Patented Nov. 16, 1971 guide by the holder members in the vicinity of the weft reversal locations i.e. in the vicinity of one of the edges of the knitted web are seized by the thread guide in the course of its travel, are passed to the holder member located at the opposite edge of the knitted web, are transferred to the last-mentioned holder member, are severed by a severing member in lengths corresponding to the width of the knitted web, and are applied individually to the warp threads by means of a guide member.

The foregoing operations are then repeated with the same or another thread by the returning thread guide or by additional thread guides further guided on the travel path thereof. Thus in accordance with another feature of the invention, the severing member is connected to the corresponding guide member, for example in the form of a severing clamping member.

To considerably facilitate the exchange of weft threads, in accordance with a further feature of my invention, the holder members located in the vicinity of one of the edges of the knitted web are mounted in a common adjusting member. By suitably controlling this adjusting member, that weft thread, respectively, which is next to be made ready can be presented to the thread guide to be gripped thereby. The thread previously made ready can thus be transferred, by means of the holder member displaced through the adjusting member, to the vicinity of the corresponding guide member which applies the weft to the warp threads. In this case, according to another simplifying feature of my invention, I provide a guide member with a severing member coordinated with each adjusting member.

In accordance with an added feature of my invention, the holder members are given such a structure as to apply the weft threads to the thread guide substantially in a direction radially to the travel path of the thread guide, whereby the clamping members of the thread guide readily and securely grip the individual ends of the weft threads.

Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.

Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in warp knit-ting machine, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.

The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view partly in section of a raschel knitting machine constructed in accordance with my invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged side view of the device for filling a weft which includes two rotating thread guides and drive mechanism therefor as seen from the right-hand side of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of FIG. 1 taken along the line III-III in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 3a is an enlarged view, partly in section, of a detail of FIG. 3 as viewed from the bottom of FIG. 3;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view, partly in section, of a detail of FIG. 3 depicting the thread feed operation in the vicinity of a member that holds an edge of the fabric web being knitted; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of FIG. 4 taken along the line VV in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to the drawings and first particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, there is shown therein, as in my aforementioned copending application, a raschel knitting machine having a frame side Wall 1 to which connecting members or cross-pieces 66 and 67 and a traverse or cross beam 33 are secured. In the interest of clarity, the projecting arm on which a pair of cross-wound bobbins or cheeses are carried to supply the weft to the knitting machine are not illustrated in FIG. 1. The nonillustrated projecting arm can have any suitable shape for mounting the bobbins side-by-side as shown for example in FIG. 3. Partial warp beams 34 and 35 are rotatably mounted on the upper part of the side wall 1, and warp threads 36 and 37 lead therefrom, respectively, through spring seesaws or rocker arms 38 and 38' to eye needles 39 and 40 and therefrom to latch needles 31 of the knitting machine. The latch needles 31 are secured by a needle bar 21 to a carrier rod 23. The knitting machine has a main drive shaft 17 which carries a cam 18 by means of which a lever 20 carrying follower rollers that are in engagement with the surface of the cam 18 is pivotable about a pivot shaft 19 fixed, for example, to the side wall 1. The lever 20 is pivotally connected to the carrier rod 23 supporting the needle bar 21 and raises and lowers the latter in accordance with the motion imparted thereto by the rotating cam 18. The carrier rod 23 is articulatingly connected at its lower end, as viewed in FIG. 1, to a pull lever 25 which is rotatably mounted on a pin 26 extending from the side wall 1. A cutting plate 27 is fixed t the sidewall 1 and extends transversely therefrom. Fabric material 28 which has been knitted in the raschel knitting machine of the invention is withdrawn from the needles 31 by rotatably mounted feed rollers 29 and 30, suitably driven, for example, through nonillustrated transmission mechanism, from the main drive shaft 17, and is wound on a beam 32.

A device having some similarity to the weft-filling device disclosed in my copending application Ser. No. 847,- 063, filed Aug. 4, 1969, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,563,061, granted Feb. 16, 1971, is employed for filling the weft in the knitting machine of the instant application and is illustrated in enlarged view in FIG. 2. In contrast to the corresponding weft filling device of my last-mentioned copending application, I employ two thread guides 512 and 5,12 traversible at equal spacing from one another along a travel path 518 and mounted on a fully counter-balanced rotary mechanism 500 so that they are alternatingly disposed in a weft-entraining and a weft-releasing position. It should be noted that the position of the rotary mechanism 500 and consequently of the thread guides 512 and 512' in FIG. 2, as well as in FIG. 3, is rotated through an angle of 90 from the position thereof shown in FIG. 1 so that the outer and inner rod portions thereof extend parallel to the edge of the knitted fabric 28 in the manner shown for example in FIG. 3. The thread guides 512 and 512, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, are located in the vicinity of the weft reversal locations.

The rotary mechanism 500, as shown in FIG. 2, includes an inner rod portion 501 rotatably mounted on a shaft 503 carried by a cross-piece or beam 9 (FIG. 1) which is secured transversely to the side wall 1. The inner rod portion 501 is provided at both ends thereof with bearings 505 and 505' wherein outer rod portions 508 and 508' are respectively pivotally mounted. Bearings 510 and 510' are located respectively at the outer ends of the rod portions 508 and 508', the thread guides 512 and 512 being respectively rotatably mounted in the bearings 510 and 510'. Transmission of rotary movements from the shaft 503 to the outer arms 508 and 508 as well as to the thread guides 5,12 and 512 is effected through a belt or chain drive mechanism 516, 517 and 51.7. As can be seen in FIG. 3, the thread guides 512 and 512 are in the form of scissors-like clamping members, each springbiased at one end thereof so as to continuously force the opposing gripper arms at the other end thereof toward one another so as to clamp a thread end therebetween. As shown further in FIG. 3, one of the arms of the respective scissors-like clamping members 512 and 512 is firmly secured to a shaft which is rotatably mounted in the respective bearings 510 and 510'. Due to the fact that the drive of the thread guides 512 and 512' is effected through the drive mechanism 517 and 517 respectively with a transmission ratio of 1:2, the gripper arms of the thread guides 512 and 512 always point in the same direction, i.e. toward the left-hand side of FIGS. 2 to 4. Furthermore, the outer arms 508 and 508 are each provided with two projections 539 and 539 (FIG. 4) formed with cam surfaces for suitably opening and closing the clamping member of the thread guides 512 and 512' respectively.

In FIG. 3 there is shown the raschel knitting machine of my invention as viewed along the line IIIIII in the direction of the arrows shown in FIG. 1, several of the details of the machine having been omitted since they are not believed to be essential for understanding the invention, and in the interest of clarity. The finished knitted web 28 is clearly seen in FIG. 3. disposed adjacent a row of the stitch-forming needles 31 carried by a needle bar 21. The drive mechanism for the needle bar 21 has been omitted in FIG. 3 to prevent obliteration of other features essential to the invention. Two wefts f and f are withdrawn from two bobbins 530 and 531 which are mounted on a supporting arm of the knitting machine and are fed to the thread guides 512 and 512 respectively that are attached to the rotary mechanism 500. It can be clearly seen in FIG. 3 how the weft f is made ready or disposed in the travel path of the thread guide 512 so as to be gripped thereby. The thread 1" previously gripped by the thread guide 512' is drawn to the opposing holder member 538 which serves simultaneously as guide member for filling or applying the weft to the warp threads. As further shown clearly in FIGS. 1 and 3, the shaft 503 of the weft-filling device of my invention is driven at a transmission ratio of 1:2 by a drive shaft 14, which receives its driving power through suitable gear transmission from the main drive shaft 17 of the knitting machine. Thus, for a complete rotation of the shaft 503, two stitches are formed, because one weft is made ready for the row of needles 31 by the respective thread guides 512 and 512' for each half rotation of the shaft 503.

The weft changing operation according to my invention is shown in the enlarged views of FIGS. 4 and 5 wherein, for the sake of simplicity, an embodiment with a so-called mixing changer is employed with which the weft is always alternately withdrawn from both bobbins 530 and 531.

The weft f is made ready for seizure by the thread guide 512 by means of a holder member which is formed with a bore 533. This bore-defining holder member 533 is mounted, together with a corresponding bore-defining holder member 534 for making ready the thread f, in a common adjusting member 535 which is mounted for reciprocation in a housing 536 therefor which is secured to a frame side wall 1' of the machine located spaced from and opposite the side wall 1 thereof.

The thread guide 512, as shown more clearly in FIG. 4, is provided with a gripping member which, in the illustrated embodiment, is formed of two clamping jaws or gripper arms 512a and 5121), of which the arm 512b is mounted so as to be pivotable about an axis 512C. The rear ends of the clamping arms 512a and 512b, extending beyond the axis 512C away from the front gripping ends thereof, tend to be forced apart by a compression spring 512d so as to continuously urge the front gripping ends of the clamping jaws 512a and 5121) toward one another i.e. to the closing position thereof. Only in the illustrated clamping position of FIG. 4 in the vicinity of the edge of the knitted web does the rear end of the clamping jaw 512/2 ride on a cam surface path formed on an extension 539 of the arm 508 so that the front gripping ends of the clamping jaws 512a and 512b are opened or separated as the spring 512d is compressed; as the thread I passes between the front gripping ends of the clamping jaws 512a and 512b, the rear ends of the clamping jaws pass beyond the limit of the cam path on the projection 539 so that the front ends of the clamping jaws are closed by the expansion of the spring 512d which forces the rear ends of the clamping jaws away from one another. The thread is thereby gripped by the clamping jaws 512a and 51%. Thus, the opening and closing of the clamping jaws 512a and 51212 of the thread guide 512 is effected by the relative motion of the thread guide 512 and the outer rod portion 508 of the rotary drive.

.As' the thread guide 512 reaches the position 512 thereof shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 due to the rotation of the rod portions 501 and 508, the free rear end arm of the clamping jaw 512k rides up on the cam surface member 539' so that the gripping ends of the clamping jaws 512a and 51% are opened and the thread is thereby transferable to a holder member 538 which, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, is in the form of a suction tube. The thus freed thread is sucked into the suction tube holder member 538 and is applied thereby to the wrap threads. For this purpose, the holder member 538, serving simultaneously as guide member is fixed to a shaft 540 which can be rotated by suitably displacing a lever arm 541 secured thereto. By the action of a tension spring 542, the lever arm 541 is urged into engagement with a cam disc 543 'which is secured to the main drive shaft 17 of the knitting machine. In the interest of clarity, this lever arm 541 is shown broken away in FIG. 1 and the cam disc 543 is omitted from that figure.

During the movement of the thread guide 512 from the left-hand edge of the knitted fabric web, as shown in FIG. 4, to the right-hand edge of the web, the adjusting member 535 is reciprocated through an angle of 180 so that the positions of both holder members 533 and 534 are exchanged. In the illustrated position of FIG. 4, the thread isgripped by a guide member 537 (also see FIG. 3) and applied to the warp threads, the guide member 537 accordingly being transferred to the position 537' thereof shown in dotted lines. The guide member 537 has the construction of a clamping severing member. When the part 537b passes between the parts 537a and 5370, the thread f is severed by the cutting edges of the parts 537 b and 5370 and the remaining thread is firmly clamped between the clamping edges 537a and 5371).

FIG. 5 shows how the clamping severing member 537 is transferred from the illustrated position thereof shown in solid lines to the position 537' shown in dotted lines. For this purpose, the guide member 537 is constructed in the form of a double lever which is freely pivotable about a shaft 544. The guide member 537 has a lever arm with a free end 537d which is urged by :a tension spring 545 into engagement with a cam disc 5% that is mounted on the main drive shaft 17 of the knitting machine. As the cam disc 546 rotates, the adjusting member 537 consequently performs a swiveling motion in the direction of the arrow 537e. The opening and closing of the parts 53711 to 5370 of the guide member 537 is effected by means of a rod 547 which is articulatingly connected to a double lever 5 49 that is pivotable about a pin 548 and is subjected to the biasing action of a tension spring 550. A lever 551 is furthermore nonrotatably secured to the pivot pin 548 and is slidable along the cam disc 552 which is mounted on the shaft 544 that is rotatably driven through a conventional gear transmission system 554a (FIG. 1) from the shaft 14 which is in turn driven off the main drive shaft 17.

In order to transfer to the guide member 537 the thread made ready between the holder members, the adjusting member 535 is reciprocatingly swiveled through angles of 180 in the directions of the double-headed arrow 535a shown in FIG. 5. This swiveling motion is effected by means of a toothed rack 553 which meshes with a toothed rim or sector 554 (FIG. 4) formed on the adjusting member 535. As the rack 553 is displaced upwardly, as viewed in FIG. 5, the adjusting member 535 rotates clockwise. In the illustrated embodiment, a double lever 555 rotatable about an axis 556 (see also FIGS. 3 and 3a) defined by a pin connected to the toothed rack 553 serves for raising and lowering the toothed rack 553. From FIG. 3a, it can be seen that the free end 555a of the lever arm 555 is urged into engagement with a cam disc 557 by the biasing action of a spring 555b which is held in position by two bearing brackets 5550 and 555d. Accordingly, due to the rotation of the shaft 503 on which the cam disc 557 is mounted, the latter causes the lever 555 to pivot from the position 555e into the position 555 thereof so that the toothed rack 553 carries out the desired upward and downward movement as viewed in FIG. 5.

As described hereinbefore, during the movement of the thread guide 512 from the edge of the knitted fabric or web shown at the left-hand side of FIG. 3 to the edge of the knitted fabric shown at the right-hand side of FIG. 3, the thread 1" is severed by the cutting edges of the parts 537b and 5370, and the remaining thread is transferred by the guide member 537 and the holder member 538 into the position 537 of FIG. 5, wherein the severed thread f can be seized by the knitting needles and intermeshed or knitted with the warp threads. Simultaneously with the movement of the thread guide 512 from the edge of the knitted fabric .at the left-hand side to the edge thereof at the right-hand side of FIG. 3, the position of the adjusting member 535 is turned through an angle of so that the thread f returns to the ready position thereof, in order to be seized by the thread guide 512 which had in the interim traveled from the edge of the fabric at the right-hand side to the edge of the fabric at the left-hand side of FIG. 3. The adjusting member 535 is turned, as aforedescribed, by the cam 557 through the double lever 555 which is shifted from the position 555e to the position 5551 thereof. The thread guide 512' seizes the thread 1 in the same manner as the thread guide 512 seizes the thread f. The thread guide 512 is moved due to the rotation of the rod portions 501 and 508- thereof in the same manner as the thread guide 512, in order to feed the thread 1 seized thereby to the thread guide 537 and the holder member 538. During the swinging movement of the thread guide 512' from the edge of the knitted fabric at the left-hand side to the edge of the knitted fabric at the right-hand side of FIG. 3, the thread 1" fed in the interim by the thread guide 512 is seized by the holder member 538 and the guide member 537 and is transferred to the knitting needles to be intermeshed or knitted with the warp threads.

Due to the revolving movement of both thread guides 512 and 512' on the travel path 518, and the simultaneous turning of the adjusting member 535, the threads and f, as aforedescribed, are alternately fed to the knitting needles so as to be intermeshed or knitted with the warp threads.

I claim:

1. Warp knitting machine having a zone wherein needles are disposed and means for supplying warp threads to the needles comprising a device for filling a weft having first holder means for making the weft ready outside the needle zone, said first holder means having a thread guide cooperating therewith for making the weft ready, said thread guide being displaceable in a closed travel path, said first holder means including means for feeding a plurality of wefts selectively to said thread guide for entrainment thereby in the closed travel path thereof, means for guiding the weft to the warp threads including at least one severing member located adjacent and coordinated with said first holder means for cutting into predetermined lengths the weft to be made ready, said thread guide having a clamping member for individually gripping the thread for each weft, and second holder means located adjacent the travel path of said thread guide and adapted to receive from the latter the weft gripped by said clamping member.

2. Warp knitting machine according to claim 1 wherein said weft guiding means includes at least one guide merriber part and a severing member part coordinated with said guide member part and connected thereto.

3. Warp knitting machine according to claim 1 wherein the selective Weft feeding means of said first holder means comprise at least two holder members located in the vicinity of one edge of a Web being knitted by the machine, said holder members being mounted in and operated by a common adjusting member.

*4. Warp knitting machine according to claim 3 wherein said means for guiding the weft to the warp threads are operatively coordinated with the operation of said adjusting member.

5. Warp knitting machine according to claim 1 wherein the selective Weft feeding means of said first holder means comprise at least two holder members dfining a path of travel for the Weft extending substantially radially to the travel path of said thread guide so as to apply the Weft to said thread guide in a direction substantially radially to said travel path thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,523,432 8/1970 Vajda et al 6685 X 1,731,369 10/1929 Baldwin 139-127 3,378,040 4/1968 Moessinger 139-122 3,482,606 12/1969 Mizuno 61'. a1 139122 X 3,498,338 3/1970 Lutze 139122 UX FOREIGN PATENTS 221,389 9/1924 Great Britain 66-84 485,872 5/1938 Great Britain 6684 290,176 2/1916 Germany 6684 900,408 7/1962 Great Britain 6685 158,530 4/1957 Sweden 6685 ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 139l27 R 

